By Lisa Messinger
Food and Cooking at Creators Syndicate

As Thanksgiving nears, the only place many busy people may find "plenty" is in a horn of plenty, the cornucopia - which emanates from Greek mythology and serves as a fruit-filled holiday centerpiece by many modern cooks. "Plenty," on the other hand, would not often be used during holiday season when describing time or money: Rushed moments and overstuffed budgets usually are more like it.

However, when it comes to impressive Thanksgiving centerpieces, those who quickly put together a horn of plenty, overflowing with the often sale-priced vibrant ingredients of the season, are barking up the right tree regarding saving time and money. These clever home cooks are letting ingredients do double-duty by serving them in their splashy meal and including them in their dining table centerpiece.

This saves thought and time, both in shopping and preparation. It also creates a planned, coordinated, impressive flow throughout the meal, giving it even more of a gourmet feel - although in reality it's a timesaving maneuver.

Toot Your Own Horn
Classic cornucopias, though, are just the beginning of many easy ideas. An offshoot can be a nontraditional horn of plenty. The horns stemmed from Zeus accidentally breaking off the horn of goat Amalthea, and then atoning by promising the horn would always be full of her favorite fruits.

Instead, consider filling your horn - often available at crafts stores and party supply stores - with other colorful, tasty ingredients you will be using in your distinct recipes.

Ingredients for Innovation
Taste of Home Magazine, the country's largest-circulation cooking magazine, once featured a butterscotch dessert coffee that would be perfect for Thanksgiving. You could have your horn bursting with the tan butterscotch chips for guests to grab up, as well as having them melt in their delicious dessert beverage.

A fall issue of Woman's Day Magazine, in its "Last-Minute Decorating" section, showed off a striking centerpiece of varying-sized canisters filled with wrapped butterscotches, white-jelled beaded candies and candy corn; scoops were included for adult guests to partake. Tall, medium and short black candles placed in front of them completed the impressive look. A variety of nuts in canisters also do the trick.

Shake Up Your Surroundings
Chef George Duran, who has been a Food Network and TLC cable network host and cookbook author, displayed on TV his Candy Corn Dessert Shake Parfait that would also be perfect with such a Thanksgiving party theme.

To imitate the look of a piece of candy corn, pour some vanilla shakes (sugar-free is a fine choice) in the bottom of glasses that are narrow on the bottom and flare out. Puree more of the vanilla shakes with some mango puree to create a yellow color. Then take some of the yellow mixture and add raspberry puree so that part becomes orange. Pour some of the orange shake atop of the vanilla shake base in the glasses topped off by spoonfuls of the yellow. Have guests accompany it with spoonfuls of the candy corn from the centerpiece canisters.

Pumpkins are Perfect
Pumpkins are always delightful as part of Thanksgiving meals and decorations, but there are much more distinct presentations than sticking with traditional orange pumpkins. As a fall issue of Sunset Magazine showed, miniature and large white pumpkins grouped with walnuts in the shell and dark-brown dried leaves and flowers make a dashing display.

Grapefruits or lemons with green leaves still attached and striped yellow pumpkins created a peppy, "lighthearted twist." And "miniature striped green-and-yellow pumpkins join a trio of copper vases and a casual arrangement of red, orange and yellow flowers. It's all about fall color - without a maple leaf or corncob in sight."

As part of the economical affair, create a show-stopping pumpkin-based recipe - conveniently prepared from the extra of the pumpkins you used in your centerpiece - to add pizzazz to your Thanksgiving meal.

Fun ideas like these also show how food ingredients can be easy, nutritious, economical, entertaining - and fast. The suggestions here take just 10 seconds each to read and are almost that quick to prepare. The combinations are delicious evidence that everyone has time for tasty creativity and, more importantly, the family togetherness that goes along with it!

QUICK TIP OF THE WEEK:  Essential oils, the pure essences that are the backbone of aromatherapy, aren't only effective at wafting through the air to hopefully induce peace and serenity (or perhaps with a different formulation, more energy or sleepiness if that's what you're looking to achieve). While doing such tasks, some choices may ignite culinary curiosity and knowledge. Peppermint, rosemary, aniseed, basil, cardamom, caraway, celery seed, coriander, clove, cinnamon, ginger, grapefruit, lemon, orange, tangerine, marjoram, spearmint, thyme and vanilla are just some of the essential oils available often fairly inexpensively online and at retailers, along with economical diffusers. They are not for ingesting or food preparation, but, not only may they make your surroundings smell good and you feel uplifted, they could be a clever way to get through their sense of smell your kids interested in eventually tasting more foods and spices.

Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food and nutrition writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the National Council Against Health Fraud and author of seven food books, including the best-selling The Tofu Book: The New American Cuisine with 150 Recipes (Avery/Penguin Putnam) and Turn Your Supermarket into a Health Food Store: The Brand-Name Guide to Shopping for a Better Diet (Pharos/Scripps Howard). She writes two nationally syndicated food and nutrition columns for Creators Syndicate and had been a longtime newspaper food and health section managing editor, as well as managing editor of Gayot/Gault Millau dining review company. Lisa traveled the globe writing about top chefs for Pulitzer Prize-winning Copley News Service and has written about health and nutrition for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Reader's Digest, Woman's World and Prevention Magazine Health Books. Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com.